SERMON NOTES

LUKE 18:18-27 (NLT)
(18) Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” (19)  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good. (20) But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’” (21) The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” (22) When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (23) But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich. (24) When Jesus saw this, he said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! 25In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” (26) Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?” (27) He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”

SURRENDER UNDERSTANDING

• Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray
• Nailing It by Nicole Massie Martin
• Salvation was bought with the sacrifice of Christ.

JOHN 3:3-10 (NLT)
(3) Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (4) “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” (5) Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. (6) Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. (7) So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ (8) The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” (9) “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked. (10) Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 

• We’re after a life that surpasses this age, we’re after a life that is better than what we’re experiencing in our day-to-day, and we’re after a life that is empowered by God not our own efforts.

JOHN 6:35-40 (NLT)
(35) Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (36) But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. (37) However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. (38) For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. (39) And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. (40) For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

• Only Jesus can fill you and quench your spiritual thirst.
• Communion is an act of surrender.

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. How are you partnering with the Holy Spirit to give birth to spiritual things in your life today?
2. What’s your history when it comes to communion and what’s your current experience of it today?
3. Are there any areas in your life where you need to surrender your own understanding? How do you need God to move in those areas today?

 

SERMON AUDIO

SERMON NOTES

“Defeat and Surrender always feel the same to me, but what does it matter? They both bring me to my knees.”

                -  Mumford & Sons, Surrender

“The essence of surrender is getting out of the way so that God can do what He wants to do.”

                - AW Tozer

JOHN 3:26-30 (NLT)
(26) So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.” (27) John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. (28) You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ (29) It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. (30) He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

EVERY GOOD THING YOU HAVE COMES FROM GOD

• Humans like to take ownership of anything that is good.
• Our calling is always to move from owner to steward in everything we have.

YOU ARE NOT THE STAR OF THE SHOW

• Whatever you do, be like John: happy to stand with the Lord, happy to make Him famous, and happy to draw people’s attention to the bridegroom.
• It’s easy to start with Jesus at the center and most important place in our life but slowly and over time kind of push him off to the side.

SURRENDER & JOY GO TOGETHER

• The Upside-Down Kingdom of God
• You can live by holding onto your own importance but when you surrender your heart, your life, your daily habits, and everything… just watch the joy of the Lord flood into your life.
• He must increase, I must decrease.

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. What areas of your life are easy to surrender/what areas are difficult?
2. Who inspires you to live a life of surrender and why?
3. How have you experienced surrender & joy working together? If never, how can you imagine it working?

 

SERMON AUDIO

SERMON NOTES

JEREMIAH 23:5-6 (NLT)
(5) “For the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will be a King who rules with wisdom. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. (6) And this will be his name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’ In that day Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety.

JEREMIAH 33:14-16 (NLT)

(14) “The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them. (15) “In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. (16) In that day Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this will be its name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’

BECAUSE OF THE PROMISE OF JESUS, YOU CAN BE SAVED.

• When the Bible talks about being saved, it’s talking about being saved for eternity but also about being saved continually.
• Left to ourselves, our sin, our shame, our fears, and our failures have a way of keeping us bound. We need a Savior.

BECAUSE OF THE PROMISE OF JESUS, YOU CAN EXPERIENCE SAFETY.

• One of the most overlooked blessings of God’s presence is the gift of safety.
• Fear shapes the way we interact with one another.
• Fear has a way of shrinking our lives—and that isn’t the life Jesus came to give us.

BECAUSE OF THE PROMISE OF JESUS, YOU CAN RECEIVE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST.

• Yahweh Tsidkenu: The LORD Is Our Righteousness
• The word tsidkenu means righteousness, justice, and being made right. It carries the idea of something being straight or aligned the way it was always meant to be.
• He doesn’t simply tell us to become more righteous—He shares His righteousness with us.

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. “What do you need Jesus to save you from?”
   Jeremiah reminds us that God meets His people in the middle of their captivity, and Natalie shared that salvation isn’t only about the moment we first give our lives to Jesus—it’s also about continually allowing Him to rescue us from the things that hold us captive. Is there an area of your life right now where you need Jesus to save or rescue you again? What makes it difficult to surrender that area to Him?
2. “What would change if you truly believed you were safe with God?”
   We talked about how fear can cause us to protect ourselves, isolate, avoid vulnerability, and even shrink our lives. Where do you tend to live out of fear or self-protection, and what do you think it would look like to experience more of God’s safety in that area? How might that change the way you relate to God, yourself, or other people?
3. “The LORD is our righteousness.” — Jeremiah 33:16
   Yahweh Tsidkenu reminds us that our righteousness isn’t something we achieve through performance; it is something we receive through Christ. Where are you most tempted to prove yourself, hide your failures, or measure your worth by your performance? What would it look like this week to live from Christ’s righteousness rather than trying to establish your own?

 

SERMON AUDIO

SERMON NOTES
JEREMIAH 29:4-7, 10-11 (NLT)
(4) This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: (5) “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. (6) Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! (7) And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”...(10) This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. (11)For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

YOU ARE A RESIDENT

• God is basically telling His people to settle in, to settle down, and to get used to Babylon because they’ll be there for multiple generations.
• God wants you to build a life that is so planted and foundational that it gets passed down from generation to generation.
• You are living in Babylon but don’t become Babylonians.

YOU ARE A RESIDENT MISSIONARY

• Don’t just work for your survival, work for the peace and prosperity of the city. Don’t just pray to God from Babylon, pray for Babylon.
• God is calling for His exiled people to pray for the occupying empire to be blessed.
• We’re called to “Join God’s Mission Transforming All Things.”

YOU ARE A RESIDENT MISSIONARY VISIONARY

• And our vision is clear: the future hope of Jesus Christ.
• It’s our hope in Jesus Christ that fuels our mission and this same hope and future is what the world around us is desperate for.

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. God’s work is rarely quick but always certain: how have you experienced this biblical truth in your life?
2. How are you working & praying for the prosperity of your city?
3. Where do you need the hope of Jesus Christ in your life today? (And who else needs the same promise?)

 

SERMON AUDIO

SERMON NOTES
JEREMIAH 17:5-10 (NLT)
(5) This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. (6) They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. (7) “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. (8) They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. (9) “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (10) But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

WHERE DO YOU PLACE YOUR TRUST?

• The nature of the human heart means that we trust, we place our hope, and have faith in something. 
• This is the kind of life we’re all invited to live but it requires us to make sure our heart is centered on the Lord; rejecting the trappings of this world and placing our trust in Him. 

WHAT’S THE STATUS OF YOUR HEART?

• The human heart is filled with broken ideas, thoughts, passions, and even desires. This is why the phrase ‘follow your heart,’ isn’t always a great idea, because my heart, just like yours, can come up with all kinds of really dumb decisions.
• “The old cliche sums it up nicely, ‘The heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart.’” - Chris Wright
• Genesis 1:27 (NLT)
• Every human you meet bears the image of God but not every human you meet is a child of God — that’s an identity only reserved for those who have placed their personal trust, faith, and hope in Jesus.

WHAT ARE YOUR MOTIVES?

• The Lord searches all hearts and knows all things — even your secret motives.
• God knows our hearts even better than we know ourselves but He doesn’t leave us to fend for ourselves.
• Left to ourselves the human heart is in trouble but when you place your trust in Jesus, He takes your old heart and gives you a new heart instead.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
• A Christian isn’t just a better version of their tainted self — a Christian is a new creation in Christ.

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1.  When has ‘follow your heart’ gotten you into trouble?
2. Where are you tempted to trust in ‘lesser things’ compared to the Lord?
3. Where do you normally lean in the tension of the human heart that was explained in this message?
4. How can you continue to experience the transformation of Christ in your mind, heart, and life?

 

SERMON AUDIO

SERMON NOTES
JEREMIAH 15:15-21 (NLT)
(15) Then I said, “Lord, you know what’s happening to me. Please step in and help me. Punish my persecutors! Please give me time; don’t let me die young. It’s for your sake that I am suffering. (16) When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies. (17) I never joined the people in their merry feasts. I sat alone because your hand was on me. I was filled with indignation at their sins. (18) Why then does my suffering continue? Why is my wound so incurable? Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook, like a spring that has gone dry.” (19) This is how the Lord responds: “If you return to me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve me. If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman. You must influence them; do not let them influence you! (20) They will fight against you like an attacking army, but I will make you as secure as a fortified wall of bronze. They will not conquer you, for I am with you to protect and rescue you. I, the Lord, have spoken! (21) Yes, I will certainly keep you safe from these wicked men. I will rescue you from their cruel hands.”

1. GOD PROTECTS
2. GOD RESCUES
3. GOD REDEEMS

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. Share a time when God seemed unreliable when you need him most.
2. How does God’s promise, “They will fight against you, but they will not conquer you,” reshape your expectations of what God’s protection looks like in real life?
3. Looking back, where can you point to God’s rescue and God’s redemption?

 

SERMON AUDIO

SERMON NOTES

JEREMIAH 10:23-25 (NLT)
(23) I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. (24) So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. (25) Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you—on the peoples that do not call upon your name. For they have devoured your people Israel; they have devoured and consumed them, making the land a desolate wilderness.

DIRECT ME

• Jeremiah doesn’t start this prayer with a request. He starts with a confession.
• You can map out your next steps, but you can’t control the outcome.
• Proverbs 16:9 (NLT)
• Trusting God’s sovereignty means believing he is not confused by what confuses us.
• My life is not my own. I can’t plan my own course…. God… DIRECT ME.

CORRECT ME

• He didn't ask to escape correction. He knew it's what he needed. He asked God to correct him with mercy instead of consuming him in wrath.
• Hebrews 12:5-6 (NLT)
• This means when God corrects you, he’s coming to you as your Father. His correction is an expression of love, not the end of it!

AVENGE ME

• Imprecatory Prayer: An invocation of divine justice against evil.
• “For the followers of the crucified Messiah, the main message of the imprecatory Psalms is this: rage belongs before God…By placing unattended rage before God, we place both our unjust enemy and our own vengeful self face to face with a God who loves and does justice." –Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever experienced God directing your life? 
2. When things fall apart, where do your feelings of guilt or shame usually go — toward yourself, toward others, or stuffed down? How could you start bringing those feelings to God instead?
3. Jeremiah asks God to correct him “but please be gentle.” How does that idea of God correcting you with gentleness change the way you think about His role in your struggles right now?
4. Have you ever prayed an imprecatory prayer, expressing your anger over injustice and evil? How did God respond? 

 

SERMON AUDIO

SERMON NOTES

JEREMIAH 9:23-24 (NLT)
(23) This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. (24) But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

WE’RE BOASTING IN THE WRONG THINGS

• Boasting isn't simply about bragging. It's about what gets our attention, our affection, and our praise.
• The problem isn't the gifts. The problem is when the gifts receive the glory that only belongs to God.
• Magis: For the greater glory of God and the well-being of his people.

BOAST IN UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWING GOD

• • 1 Corinthians 1:31 (NLT)
  • We can understand God mentally, but we can know God intimately. 
  • Knowing God happens when our understanding of him moves from our head to our heart.
  • The Hebrew word for "to know" in Jeremiah 9:24 is יָדַע (yāḏaʿ)
  • We don't want to just be educated about God; we want to experience him for ourselves. 
  • Attributes of God Resources:

• • • Daily Grace Study

• • • Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

BOAST IN WHAT GOD HAS DONE

• I wonder what would happen if people walked away from conversations with us, thinking more about God than about us?
• This is what Jeremiah is inviting us into. A life that boasts less in ourselves…and more in our God.

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. Jeremiah says not to boast in wisdom, power, or riches, but to boast in knowing God. What are the things you're most tempted to find your identity or value in? Why do you think those things are so attractive?
2. Kori talked about the difference between understanding God mentally and knowing God intimately. Have there been moments in your life where something you knew about God became something you personally experienced? Share that story with the group.
3. This week, how can you intentionally "boast in the Lord"? What's one story of God's faithfulness, provision, healing, or love that you could share with someone this week instead of drawing attention to yourself?

 

SERMON AUDIO

SERMON NOTES

JEREMIAH 6:16 (NIV)
This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

STEP ONE: STOP

• Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)
  Stand at the crossroads and look….

STEP TWO: ASK

• Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)
  …ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is.
• John 14:6 (NIV)
  I am the way….

STEP THREE: WALK

• Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)
  …walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

MATTHEW 11:28-29 (NLT)
(28) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

MATTHEW 11:28-29 (MSG)
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. What are the Crossroads you are facing in your life right now and how might the Lord be inviting you to Stop, Ask, and Walk in a different direction?
2. Why do you often resist turning back to God, even when you know His way leads to greater rest and peace in your life?
3. There is a deep surrender to Jesus that can bring a deeper rest and peace to your life. What are the areas in your life that are easy to surrender to Him, and what are the areas that are more difficult for you to surrender?

 

SERMON AUDIO